Sears Names Chief Merchant

Sears, Roebuck and Co. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) has hired retail veteran Luis Padilla to the newly created position of president of merchandising.

In this new role with Sears, Padilla will lead and integrate all merchandising and marketing across the company’s product and brand portfolio, reporting to chairman and ceo Alan Lacy.

Padilla joins Sears from Target Corp. (Minneapolis), where he served in key leadership roles with the company — most recently as executive vp, merchandising, for Target’s Marshall Field’s division (which was sold in its entirety to The May Department Store Co., St. Louis, earlier this year). Before that he was senior vp, softlines merchandising, for Target Stores.

“In Luis Padilla, we have one of the industry’s most highly regarded retail executives who is credited with outstanding achievement in combining excellent merchant skills with a passion for brand leadership,” said Lacy. “His background and experience in bringing great merchandise to both a department store and discount retail environment, to both on- and off-mall formats, is ideally suited for this key leadership position at Sears as we move to grow our business aggressively on all fronts.”